Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1887-02-05
PRIVATE RACE TRACKS.
An Alleged New Game Which Is Said
to be Very Popular With the Girls.

An Alleged New Game Which Is Said
to be Very Popular With the Girls.
TFrom the Philadelphia Press.l
Fraser has the most beautiful sst of bach
elor apartments on Madison Square, and
whenever he wants to give a little party, that
is party which includes girls. he has the
most delightfully."- convenient old deaf aunt
who comes in as chaperone. Fraser not
only has beautiful apartments, but he has
the most beautiful and well appointed race
course game, which has now become SO wild
ly popular in New York society. and whose
chief merit, to put it frankly, as far as I can
see, is that it is the only gambling game ]
know of where the bank takes equal chances
with the players and does not inevitably
come out ahead.
1t consists of thin board about six feet
long by four wide covered with rich brown
morocco, and on which is marked in gold a
track encircling it. This track is divided
again by gold lines into one hundred and
fifty equal portions, which are numbered
from one to one hundred and fifty, and al
the decimal multiples two parallel lines are
drawn, which are called indicated hurdles
The paraphernalia of the game consists of 6
quantity of little ivory flags attached to lit
tie brass poles, on which are marked start
finish and zone dice,' "two dice" and 'tthree
dice.'' These poles fit into little holes in the
DOdru On Uu0 0uSGS Ol bu6 bEdCk dtlu Cdu Oe
shifted from one place to another. There
are also half dozen beautifully made brass
hurdles the width of the track, and several
little pieces of polished plate glass about an
inch wide and also the width of the track to
represent water jumps. There are six sta
bles beautifully made out of polished cedar,
and in each stable three bronze horses cast
from special moulds. On the back of each
horse is jocky admirably posed, his jacket
the color of the stable he represents, and on
an ivory tablet which hangs over the door OF
each stable Is painted the name of the three
horses, their distinguishing colors and the
colors of the stable.
Ny three horses for example were named
respectively Bob Tail Flush, Lame Duck and
the Ghost, and were respectively brown, a
bay and white; while the coloIs of my sta
BILE were white cap and jackets with red sash.
Anna Halls three horses were called Spider
Wort, Arty and Deeters respectively, and her
colors were maroon and red. Fraser had
prepared programmes for about fifty races,
which are beautifully printed on pads, and
which allow for series of six to be run at
each meeting. He calls the meeting the Un-
ion Square Jockey club. and to each of us
who are original members of the club he has
presented, the men with silver button with
a monogram, and the girls silver four-leaf
clover with their initials. Each person play
ing is given one of these ogrammes and a
little score card on which to enter their own
and competing horses and to figure up their
gains and losses. Fraser offers a purse for
each race from two dollars up to ten dollars.
We play the game as follows:
Having sat down each at an appointed
place around the table, Fraser announces the
first race and we declare our entry for this
and those to follow. We are each given ten
dollars worth of ivory chips and four dice
and a holder. The first race on Wednesday
evening, remember it well, was a fiat one
of half mile; that is Fraser placed the fin
ish flags at No. rs. Anna Hall entered her
horse Arty, Pussy her horse Patriarch; Fra
ser, Temple Court; Hypatia Powers her
horse Denny, andol entered the Ghost. The
purse was two dollars and we each gave
twenty-five cents entry. As was on Fra
ser's right threw the dice first, throwing
twelve and putting my horse on this num-
Der; Anna Hall came next and threw three
skies, whereupon Arty went to eighteen.
After we had each thrown the dice twice and
the Ghost was leading, he passed the three
dice flag and soon fell behind Hypatia's horse
Denny, passing each in turn and getting SO
far in the lead that even after passing the
seventy flag and having only one flag, she
won the race with him. Anna Halls horse
Arty came in second, and the rest of us, not
having passed the seventy flag before Arty
finished, had to pay each forfeit of twenty
five cents. AS there were four of us play
ing. this made, with entries. forfeits and the
original purse, an amount OF three dollars
and seventy-fve cents, of which a third, one
dollar and twenty five cents, went to the
second horse, Arty, and Denny captured the
remainder.
This, although handsomer game than is
usually seen, is a sample one of the many
that are now being played in New York
houses, and the game, which is really not q
new one, follows the revival of somewhat
similar one which was craze in Paris last
winter. It affords much of the pleasure of
the race track, and although quite. as seduc-
tive form of gambling as that practised at
Sheepshead and Jerome Park during the au
tumn and spring, is curiously enough con-
dulge in it nightly, winning and losing quite
large sums.